Tahsildars not changing khata within time limit leading to flood of litigations in court: Karnataka HC

Pointing out that the court is flooded with petitions seeking directions to tahsildars to enter names of purchasers of lands in revenue records, the High Court of Karnataka directed the Principal Secretary of the Revenue Department to ensure that tahsildars adhere to the timeline for changing names in revenue records in undisputed cases as per the time frame fixed in the Karnataka Sakaala Services Act, 2011.

The court directed the Principal Secretary to ensure that the notice boards in the office of the tahsildars should henceforth indicate the information regarding pending/disposed of applications in terms of the provisions of the Sakaala Act.

Justice R. Devdas issued the directions while allowing a petition filed by Annapurneshwari Builders and Developments, which has complained that Bengaluru North Taluk Tahsildar has filed to change the khata in their name since 2023.

Pointing out that the time frame fixed for changing the name in the khata is 60 days (in undisputed cases) under the Sakaala Act, the court said that if the tahsildars do their duty in terms of the law, there is no need for the purchasers, who have acquired title over the land, to knock the doors of the court.

Failure and cost

As tahsildar in the present case has not changed the name in khata from three years, the court said that it was surprised to note that the competent officers have failed – to monitor the applications pending before the tahsildars, for not providing information on the notice boards in the offices of tahsildars on number of applications pending and disposed, and for not taking action against the tahsildars for failure to provide the services within the time stipulated in the Sakaala Act.

As the Sakaala Act has a provision to impose a cost, of ₹20 for every day’s beyond timeline, not exceeding ₹500 on the officers who fail to dispose application within the time limit, the court said that it would in future start imposing cost on the State government for the failure of its officers in disposing of the applications by tahsildars within the prescribe time limit.

In the present case, the court imposed ₹500 cost on Bengaluru North Taluk Tahsildar, directing him to enter the petitioner’s name within six weeks.